Artist:     The Harmed Brothers

Album:     Across the Waves

Label:     Fluff and Gravy

Release Date:     6.5.2020

88

BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

The Harmed Brothers is the story of two restless musicians who somehow found each other, recorded four full-length records over the last decade from various locales, and finally settled in Ludlow, Kentucky, across the river from nearby Cincinnati, where they recorded their fifth CD, Across the Waves. Singer-songwriter Ray Vietti first encountered Los Angeles transplant, songsmith, and multi-instrumentalist Alex Salcido over a decade over and the two bonded musically. They’ve spent most of their adult lives on the road but have settled down for a new start. While they began as a duo, they’ve fronted a band for the past seven years and this effort reflects a unit of six, complete with plenty of guitars, strings, and pedal steel. One associates their sound with Southern California or desert Americana, less the psychedelia employed by many of those bands. It seems that Salcido’s California upbringing is still very much in play.

Perhaps their newfound settled-in feeling is best expressed in these words to affecting “River Town,” –“In a river town, outside the city/In a river town, dividing these states/In a river town, where you and I feel safe/And I hope we always feel this way.” It’s a gentle, pedal steel swept acknowledgement of finding a special someone to come home to, a far cry from years of a lonely nomadic life. The jangling, rambling “Picture Show” carries a much brisker musical vibe but at heart is focused on newfound romanticism.

In prior years we’d call their music country rock but in today’s terms it’s the intersection of Americana and indie rock. The two musical partners wrote all ten tunes, and apart from the two mentioned, try to find optimism in a world beset with many troubling issues. They begin with “Skyline Over,” the epitome of that challenge to find hope. Instead of bringing a doomsday perspective, they sometimes take a tongue-in-cheek approach, exemplified in “Funnies” where an old man longs to see the world again through youthful eyes but instead settles for his favorite chair and the lighter subject matter in the morning paper.

“Born a Rotten Egg” and “In a Staring Contest” are about estranged families with the push of pull of trying to go home or back in time. “Where You’re Going” and to a lesser extent “All the Same” are the thematic centerpieces, essentially about acceptance of the pitfalls and cyclical nature of life’s highs and lows. They amplify this theme in the closing two tracks, as suggested by the titles “Ride It Out” and “Time.” These lyrics sum up their stance – “Ride it out, take a deep breath” and “We’ll stay, and we’ll play these songs.”

The gliding, rolling nature of their sound belies their dark optimism. The Harmed Brothers have likely risen to new level with these eminently listenable, well-crafted songs.

—Jim Hynes